Aquino’s allies look set to take Philippine Congress

CORRUPT TRIUMPH:Former president Joseph Estrada was elected mayor of Manila, while former first lady Imelda Marcos won a second term in the lower house

AFP, MANILA

Former Philippine president Joseph Estrada is greeted by supporters in the Ninoy Aquino Memorial Stadium in Manila yesterday after the Manila Board of Canvassers announced he had been elected mayor of Manila in the mid-term elections.

Photo: EPA

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III yesterday secured big wins in mid-term elections seen as vital to his ambitious reform agenda, but the success of famous, graft-tainted rivals raised alarm.

Aquino’s ruling Liberal Party and its allies were set to gain control of both houses of Congress, according to the official election tally with more than 75 percent of Monday’s votes counted.

Most crucial was control of the Senate, with Aquino allies on track to win nine of 12 seats contested in the mid-term elections to give the president a comfortable majority that would allow him to much more easily pass legislation.

“Since we will have a greater support in the Senate, that means we will be able to push our reform agenda, the laws that we feel are our priorities for the country,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters.

Aquino won a landslide victory in 2010 on a platform to fight corruption and improve the standard of governance, problems widely blamed for crushing poverty that most of the nation’s 100 million people endure. However, in his first three years, Aquino had majority support of the lower house, but not the Senate.

He was still able to get through important and controversial pieces of legislation, such as the country’s first state-backed birth control program and increased “sin” taxes for tobacco and alcohol.

Aquino also wants to pass legislation to expand health care and other social services to the poor, while passing a long-delayed law forcing mining firms to pay higher taxes was also a top priority.

Aquino is restricted by the constitution to one term of six years. The strengthened position for Aquino following Monday’s elections is also expected to help him promote a potential successor to continue with his reforms.

However, wins for a host of controversial candidates underlined what critics said were the many problems still facing the Philippines’ young democracy, 27 years after the end of dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ rule.

Marcos’ 83-year-old widow, Imelda, easily won a second straight term in the lower house representing Ilocos Norte, a province that for decades has been a loyal family stronghold. Her daughter Imee ran unopposed and was re-elected governor of the province.

Former president and convicted plunderer Joseph Estrada, who was forced from power in 2001 by a popular uprising, was also elected mayor of Manila, giving him oversight of more than 1.6 million people.

He beat Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, an 83-year-old former police chief who once served in Estrada’s Cabinet as interior secretary. Under Lim’s watch, eight Hong Kong tourists were killed by a hostage-taker in 2010 in a bungled police rescue. An investigation found him liable and negligent

“This is a victory of the Filipino masses,” Estrada said after he was proclaimed the winner, insisting his political comeback vindicated his long campaign to clear his name.

Estrada, 76, is one of the leaders of the main opposition coalition, the United Nationalist Alliance.

Estrada’s successor, former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo, also easily won a second straight term in the lower house despite campaigning from a military hospital where she has been detained for months while on trial for corruption.

Additional reporting by AP

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